Charities appeals regulations

Updated 16 August 2024

On 5 July 2023, the Charities Amendment Act 2023 (Amendment Act) received Royal assent. The Amendment Act expands the existing Taxation Review Authority to hear appeals under the Charities Act 2005 and become the Taxation and Charities Review Authority (the Authority). The new appeals provisions in the Charities Act commenced on 5 July 2024.

The Amendment Act contains most of the rules for the operation of the Authority with some information needed in regulations to fully operationalise the Authority and ensure alignment with the wider tribunal system. The information needed in regulations includes:

• the amount of the fee to file an appeal;
• when it might be appropriate to waive the filing fee; and
• other procedural matters.

Policy decisions

On 27 March 2024, Cabinet agreed to a single filing fee of $200 with the provision of a fee waiver, and several procedural matters to ensure processes run seamlessly end-to-end and the Authority is aligned with the wider tribunal system. Decisions on key procedural matters are summarised below.

Procedures related to a fee waiver

• The criteria for granting a filing fee waiver will be financial hardship and public interest (for example, the proceeding raises a question of law or issues of significant public interest).
• The Authority will have the power to postpone a fee payment, recover a postponed fee and refund a fee.

Procedures related to case management conferences

• Case management conferences are preliminary meetings between the Authority and all parties. The Authority will be able to adjourn a case management conference, determine preliminary issues in the absence of a party and dismiss an appeal if it is the appellant that misses the case management conference.
• The Authority can also reinstate an appeal after an appellant fails to attend a case management conference due to exceptional circumstances or another good reason for not attending.

For more detail on the policy decisions, please refer to the Cabinet paper and the Regulatory Impact Statement here:

• Cabinet paper and minutes – Policy proposals to enable appeals to the taxation and Charities Appeals Authority (PDF, 1MB)
• Regulatory Impact Statement – Policy proposals to enable appeals to the taxation and Charities Appeals Authority (PDF, 611KB)

Regulations

On 1 July 2024, the Executive Council approved the Charities (Taxation and Charities Review Authorities — Appeals Process) Regulations 2024. The regulations commenced on 5 July 2024 and give effect to the policy decisions outlined above.

For more information on the final decisions, refer to the Cabinet paper here: Ministers' papers - Community and Voluntary Sector

To view the regulations, please see: Charities (Taxation and Charities Review Authorities—Appeals Process) Regulations 2024 (SL 2024/131) Contents – New Zealand Legislation

For further information about making an appeal, please see Taxation and Charities Review Authority | New Zealand Ministry of Justice

Prior to making an appeal, charities and individuals can object to an intended decision by the Charities Registration Board or the Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs. For more information about the objections process, please see: Charities Services | Objections to decisions

Targeted engagement (2023/24)

The Department undertook targeted engagement to seek feedback on the policy proposals from 15 November 2023 to 18 January 2024 to inform final policy proposals. Stakeholders we sought feedback from included the Charities Sector Group as well as registered charities and individuals who submitted on appeals during targeted engagement on policy developed in 2021 ahead of the Amendment Act.

Information on members of the Charities Sector Group is available here: Charities Services | Charities Sector Group

Documents used for targeted engagement (2023/24)

Consultation material November 2023 [PDF, 419KB]

Consultation feedback form November 2023 [PDF, 176KB]

Stakeholder feedback (2023/24)

The Department has released submissions on the policy proposals for appeals regulations.

Redactions have been made consistent with the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982. Redactions fall under Section 9(2)(a) – protecting the privacy of natural persons. Personal contact details such as personal email addresses have been redacted. Publicly available contact details have not been redacted.

Submissions include feedback from the following groups or individuals:

• Alzheimers New Zealand
• Crown Law
• Dr Juliet Chevalier-Watts
• National Council of Women of New Zealand
• New Zealand Law Society
• Platform Charitable Trust
• Public Trust
• Te Whakakitenga o Waikato Inc (Waikato Tainui)

Submissions [PDF, 2MB]